The United States has experienced over 60 weather-related disasters in the past 25 years, each of which has caused in excess of $1 billion in damages. Together, these disasters have caused in excess of $350 billion in damage.
Population growth along the coastline of the United States has resulted in an increased risk to life and property from hurricane related damage. There are approximately 153 million residents that live in coastal counties of the United States, with areas such as Texas, Florida, and the Carolinas, where hurricanes frequently strike, experiencing rapid population growth. In addition, many coastal areas experience substantial but temporary population increases from holiday, weekend, and vacation visitors during hurricane season.
Homes, buildings, fences and other permanent structures often suffer substantial damage when windborne debris and storm generated winds overload the capacity of the structure.
Fences are often erected in congested areas to provide privacy and safety to the homeowner. In fact, many coastal areas have laws requiring fences to be built around swimming pools or yards that contain swimming pools to reduce pool related accidents. These fences are often constructed of wood, plastic, aluminum, steel or other structural material at great expense to the homeowner. The fences generally include a plurality of vertically oriented posts anchored within the ground and fence panels permanently affixed to and extending between the vertical posts. Due to the permanent and structural nature of fences, they are often damaged or destroyed by the strong winds generated in coastal storms.
Removal and storage of the fence panels before a storm is generally impractical. Most fences are not constructed to allow for disassembly without destroying the fence panels. Even if the panels could be removed, storage of the panels would be difficult and would consume a significant portion of the available storage space. In addition, the inherent weight of the fence panels would require a support structure to prevent the panels from tipping or falling while stored. Still yet, due to the congested population of coastal areas, many families live in condominiums or apartments. Most of these dwellings do not have a garage or other space which could be dedicated to fence panel storage.
Prior art fencing examples include, Itri et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,465,262, discloses a portable expandable barrier which comprises a pair of fences slideably interconnected and releasably held in a desired orientation by locking means such as lock set cylinders. Nicholls, U.S. Pat. No. 5,364,076, discloses a fence structure including a barrier and elongated fence posts. The fence posts include T-shaped slots in which end portions of the fence sections are received prior to final assembly of the posts. In general these fences are constructed as permanent structures. Thus, removal of the panels to minimize storm related damage to the fence would require complete disassembly of the fence structure.
Therefore, what is needed in the art is a fence system that allows the fence panels to be pivoted to a substantially horizontal position during a storm which produces high winds. The fence system should provide brackets that are constructed for easy installation on pre-existing as well as new fencing. The construction of the upper retainer brackets should allow detachment of the upper portion of the fence panels from the posts while the lower brackets should be hinged so that the fence panels can be pivoted for securement to the ground in a substantially horizontal orientation. Stakes should be provided to secure the fence panels to a ground surface in their horizontal orientation. After the storm, the panels should be re-engagable to the posts in the vertical orientation to provide privacy and security.